| Summary: | Their postoffice was Bodish. Their first home was a two room sod house. Their first grain was sent by barge from Stanton. Later they traveled to Hebron. When they took grain to the mill they would travel in caravans to get the flour and winter supplies. It would take four or five days for a trip. When Mr. Beck went to Bismarck to apply for citizenship papers, it took a week with a team and wagon. Mr. Beck passed away in 1955, age 84; and Mrs. Beck in 1946, age 71. One daughter, Mrs. John Kessler, passed away in 1954; Other children are John, Jr., Sawyer; Mrs. Chas. Brysan, Bismarck; Mrs. Fred Gubbe, Washington; Albert, Zap; Mrs. Leslie Bakken, Valley City; Mrs. Lawrence Lenoburg, Mcintosh, S. D.; Robert, Gladstone, Ore.; and Mrs. Gust Ganske in Canada. JACOB BOESHANS came here in 1895 and lived in a sod house eighteen miles north of Beulah. They had a team of horses, a covered wagon, two cows, and a walking plow. The next year they built a stone and clay house but lost all of their machinery and hay in a prairie fire. Henry lived on the home place until in 1948, when the government bought their farm for. the Garrison dam reservoir. Henry moved to Minnesota. Fred his brother, lives north of Beulah. John is deceased. JACOB BENZ. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob and Rosina Benz came to Mercer county in 1894 with his parents, Matt and Christina Benz, and four sons. They came by wagon and team from Freeman, S. D. At first they stayed for two weeks at Beaver Creek north of Beulah. Later they moved to the Expansion area. Their mail came to the Semmler home near Krem before the postoffice was established at Expansion. They took in sheep from Philip Blank of New Salem and cattle from Henry Lindemann of the same place, to keep on shares. They had one ox, a team of horses and a breaking plow. They built a house of sod, roofed with timbers and then covered with sod. They built a mud oven. First a big fire would be built. When it was hot, the fire was removed and bread was placed in to bake. Then closed tightly. Once their horses strayed into the area where the Jacob Bohrers lived. When they found more families living southeast of their home, they moved to that area. Jacob, Jr., still lives on the home place. Others in the family are Matt, Philip, John, Katherine Martin, Frido- lina Anderson, Paulina Schriever and Wilhelmina Benz. MR. AND MRS. JACOB BOHRER, SR., and sons, Fred and Joe, arrived in this country in May, 1887. They settled five and one-half miles south of Mannhaven, taking three quarters, a tree claim, homestead and a pre-emption. Their first home was a hut. They had a milk cow, a team of horses, an ox team and a breaking plow. The first spring they put in a crop of wheat, oats, corn and a garden. They had a good harvest. In later years Mr. Bohrer went into the store at Mannhaven. Jacob Bohrer, Sr., died in 1909, age 69 years. JOHN BOHRER, SR., came in October 1902 to New Salem by train and settled near Expansion. His children by his first marriage were Peter, Martin and Helen. By his second marriage: Dorthea, Hazen; Hertha Sailer, Tacoma, Wash.; Ernest, deceased; Walter of Bismarck; Emil of Hazen and Erhard. His wife died in 1917 and he married Emilia Sheck in 1918. She passed away in 1936 and Mr. Bohrer in 1926, age 80. . FRED BOHRER married Christina Sailer, now deceased. Their 62 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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